New Season Preperations

[MichaelBick]

Could you please be a little bit more specific on what you want to know so that we could answer your question well? For now I'll outline a little bit of what we use. Currently we are ordering all kinds of tools, bolts, nuts, rivets, raw materials, sprockets, bearings, etc. Basically everything we know that we will use. In tools we are ordering new riveters, strippers, crimpers, retaining ring tools, and allen keys(we are trying to replace all the bad harbor freight tools we currently have). For raw materials we are ordering 2x1 aluminum extrusion(both 1/8 wall and 1/16: we mainly use 2x1 to build our robots), and both 1/2 and 3/8 hex bar for shafts. We are ordering AM #25 aluminum sprockets to match. We do manufacture parts in house. We are trying very hard to get a lathe in house so that we can make all our shafts ourselves in addition to a mill. For bolt sizes we mainly use 10-32, but also sometimes use 8-32, 6-32, and 4-40. The most common bearings we use are FR8ZZ and FR6ZZ, but we could use others.

[ksafin]

1) We use 80/20 Aluminum Extrusion for our robot, so we're ordering something like $500 - $1,500 worth of Extrusion for this season, as well as tons of brackets.
2) Every variety of bolt and nut. Can't go wrong there.
3) Various Aluminum Sheeting and stock (square stock, flat stock, L stock)

That's pretty much all we're getting pre season but are considering also buying:

1) Mecanum Wheels
2) Belts
3) Sprockets
4) Talon Motor controllers
5) Polycarbonate

[ehfeinberg]

Originally Posted by ksafin

1) We use 80/20 Aluminum Extrusion for our robot, so we're ordering something like $500 - $1,500 worth of Extrusion for this season, as well as tons of brackets.

You might want to invest in some quick frame just in case you run over weight

Trust me, you'll need it

[ksafin]

Originally Posted by ehfeinberg

You might want to invest in some quick frame just in case you run over weight

Trust me, you'll need it

Yeah unfortunately it's heavy stuff :/

[Orbit1690]

thanks for all the answers! your help is much appreciated

[Orbit1690]

Uhmmm, can you guys tell us a bit about the quantities you buy as well? We're not sure about how much should we get...

[Brandon Zalinsky]

Originally Posted by Orbit1690

Uhmmm, can you guys tell us a bit about the quantities you buy as well? We're not sure about how much should we get...

With extrusion and angle bracket, we usually get a few feet (around 10) of everything. This means two sizes of angle bracket, 1x1 80/20, and some square stock and square tubing. We then judge how we much material we have left over and purchase more more based on that.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Orbit1690

Uhmmm, can you guys tell us a bit about the quantities you buy as well? We're not sure about how much should we get...

We usually go through 4-5 10' lengths of 1" square tubing in a year, and four or five boxes of rivets (and usually a couple of riveters to go with it!).

I see that your team has made a few trips over to the States for Championship, so you'd also want to examine what parts you use over there that aren't available over here. Metric fasteners, metric-gauge wire, even plywood--if you're building expecting a raw material to be around, it may not be!

[Orbit1690]

Thanks! we were wondering, what sort of gears do you guys use? (How big, how many teeth?)
Can you also elaborate abit on motors and electronics that you use ?